Akira Kurosawa had hoped to make this film as early as in the 1950s, but he had trouble adapting the story to a Japanese setting, never thinking that one day he would actually be able to film it on location in Russia, and with Russian actors.
The film is based on the autobiographical writings of Russian soldier Vladimir Arsenev during his surveying expeditions in Siberia in the early 1900s.
To make the tiger attack more realistic, a wild one was used instead of a domesticated animal - and needless to say, it wasn't collaborative.
This film was made when a member of the Russian embassy contacted Akira Kurosawa, asking him to make a Russian film for Russians, being that television hadn't grown yet in the USSR and that Russia lacked, according to the ambassador, good writers and directors for films.
In 1971, Akira Kurosawa attempted suicide due to a bad moment of his career, questioning his creative ability after the commercial failure of Dodes'ka-den (1970) the year before, and the subsequent denial of funds for his productions by Japanese studios.
Akira Kurosawa: [weather] Same as in Kurosawa's other films, this one too continues the tradition of having various weather conditions (rain, snow, rainbow...) for aesthetic or symbolic value.